As soon as the door opened, a horrible foul stunk stang their noses, making them wriggle. Even though it was daytime, the inside was pitch dark as the bastard closed all the windows. He even told his servants to close the door back so that the monster would not escape.

"How does he expect to find a monster in this dark?" the shield warrior muttered.

Then suddenly, the hammer guy felt something slippery at his feet so he asked for some light. "luminous!" Ethan lighted up his sword. A white light spread across the dark room and to the big guy's feet.

With the light they saw; in front of them was a carcass of a boy, gut spewing out of the body. A leg was torn apart from his knee, the remain nowhere to be found.

"Fuck! I was stepping on his guts!" The big guy cries in disgust. He stepped back and wiped his shoes on the floor.

"Pay some respect to the dead, will ya?" The shield warrior asked him. The big guy wanted to say something back but he decided not to.

Ethan crouched down near the body to get a close look. It was the boy he saved from the apparition. He was so shocked to find out that the boy was killed by another monster while he was away. Just earlier he was thinking about him and was excited. Like in the past, the poor boy was left behind by his master and his colleagues again as his broken leg was not properly healed.

The hammer guy noticed that Ethan lost his focus so he warned him, "hey, now is not the time to moan. Judging by the bite marks, it is..."

"Geckan," Ethan answered before the man finished his sentence to show that he was still in the game.

"If you know, get up quickly."

"This will be tricky. Watch your feet!" Ethan warned the group.

'Geckan' are the lizard monsters that look like the gecko/house lizards; except they are deadly. Those lizards make homes around human dwellings and prey from the dark corners. They mostly attacked the legs first to take down their prey, then they let them bleed out so that there is no resistance when they feast on the rest. Their lethality comes from their ability to cloak themselves among the surrounding, as close as invisibility.

Before Ethan could warn the group, they heard three clicking sounds, followed by a scream from a servant. The geckan got him from behind a crate and dragged him to the shadow. It was so fast, the inexperienced servants did not have time to save their coworker. They were blankly staring at the dark where the poor man was taken until Ethan yelled them some sense in.

"Don't stand there! Get your man back. We can still save him." Ethan followed the blood trail in a rush. The frightened servants followed him quickly while the shield warrior watched and protected their backs. He is the kind of man who gets things done quietly.

When they reached the end of the trail, the men were discouraged by the scene they witnessed. They saw the man still alive yet asking not to be saved but ended his misery quickly as they saw the guts spilling out of the hole at his belly and a leg bitten off.

Everyone was looking at Ethan who was the only one with a sword. "I didn't come here to kill a man. My sword is only for monsters," replied Ethan to the question inside their mind and walked away. The rest followed him quietly without complaint.

They went deeper into the barn where there are more stacks of crates and little fences to contain the herds which created more shadows and blind spots. As they approached the inner, they could feel something moving around behind the boxes. It was so fast that they could not get a grip on where it went.

"It can come from anywhere. Let's form a close circle and watched our feet." The hammer guy suggested and they followed.

*Click click click

The geckan growled as it watched cautiously a group of people who came to hunt it down. It saw a target among the crowd and tried to snatch its prey. The target was one of the servants who was trembling in fear after he saw his best friend's sudden demise.

It opened its jaw and showed its menacing razor-sharp teeth to dig into its target's flesh. It came near the man as close as a breath away, but before its teeth embedded into the man, the shield warrior slammed his shield between them. He noticed the man was weak and cowering so he put his eyes on him since earlier.

"Tha...thank...thank you, warrior." The man startlingly said gratitude for saving his life. "May I know your name?"

"Ishàn from Northedge." The warrior replied respectfully.

And it made the hot-headed hammer guy sick. "Oh come on. We are in deep shit. So stop your formality, Ishàn."

"No, I won't, Dovos. In this chaotic world, manners are what make us different from these monsters. Etiquette brings our society together."

To Dovos who complained, Ishàn stood his ground firm.

Seeing them bickering in the middle of the enemy ground, reminded him of the bickering between his teammates back in the day. His captain's instinct returned and made them fall back in line.

"Stop bickering. There is more than one. Stay sharp. They will be coming in soon." Ethan led the team.

As Ethan said, soon they heard clicking sounds from all around them. They initially thought there were two or three at most. "Fricking hell," Dovos muttered. "Why didn't you guys mention there are a lot of monsters in here?" He asked the servants angrily.

The servants denied their knowledge of it that they did not know it either. "Only the master and old man Pips might know." They claimed. Then one of them said, "Hey Gida, you also know right? You are the one Mr Pips told to go up the roof and checked inside."

Every eye turned to the man Gida. After being cornered, he confessed that he knew it and reported it to his master. "But master told me not to tell anyone."

"Why?" Dovos asked angrily. Frightened and guilty, the man lowered his head so Ethan answered in his stead, "Because with this many monsters, the Temple will burn down the entire barn along with the monsters instead of clearing it. Anyway, now is not the time to fight among ourselves. Be ready. They are coming."

Upon Ethan's leadership, they braced themselves for combat. As the clicking sounds got louder and louder, they became more nervous. Their hands were sweaty but their grip on their weapons became tighter.

Then suddenly, all the voices turned silent. It was so quiet they could hear their heartbeats.

Before the men lost focus of the sudden quietness, Ethan broke the silence, "Wait for three clicks!"

They did not know what Ethan meant at that time but they quickly understood it soon.

*Click

*Click

*Click

A dozen of geckans rushed out of the shadow, attacking them from all directions.

Although Ethan, Ishàn and Dovos managed to thwart the monsters, the servants struggled to fight them off. Their axes were not long enough to reach their feet.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

One by one, two of the servants were taken to the darkness while they cried for help.

"Arr....! Help!! Save me!"

The screeching wail echoed through the entire room, reflecting the true horror and fear they faced.

"Dovos, Ishàn, Gida! Take left." Ethan ordered the team quickly to go after and saved them before their limbs were ripped off alive. "The rest with me."

They split up to have the best chance of saving them. They followed the scream. Thankfully, Ethan got there before the man was sent to the afterlife. He threw his dagger to the geckan head which was gritting the man's ankle to tear it apart. The dagger's blade sank into the head and hooked to the ground, saving the man's foot. A geckan ran behind a crate after its friend was slain by Ethan and Ethan saw that.

"Divination." He stroked down the geckan along with the crate, mercilessly splitting both in half.

After witnessing two of the monsters slain in a moment, the morale increased exponentially. The two who came along with Ethan got ahead of themselves and chased the monsters. When Ethan tried to call them back in line, they were meters apart, one on the left and another on the right.

"Fricking Idiots!" Ethan cursed.

In the blink moment, the lights from the two torches fell to the ground and withered along with the desperate wails.

Ethan saved the man who could still be saved and carried him back to regroup with Dovos' group.

Meanwhile, at Dovos' group, they followed the man quickly but the geckans were quicker. Three geckans flocked over the man and dismantled him. After a short desolate scream, the man fell silent.

Fear stroke the servant when he witnessed a horrific upheaval occurring before him. He lost another friend whom he had known his entire life.

"Arrrr...!!" The man fell into desolation and ran away back to the entrance. Ishàn tried to stop him but failed, so he ran after the man.

"Dovos!" Ishàn notified Dovos that he was going after the man.

"For god sake. Aren't we supposed to be competing with them for the head? Why are we saving them now?" Dovos complained. However, he still went along with Ishàn, protecting him from the geckans which tried to attack.

"Rawr!" He hit his hammer to the edge of a crate, pushing it toward a geckan and sandwiched it between another crate.

While Dovos and Ishàn were busy saving his ass, the man neglected them all and escaped alone. He tried to open the door but failed. As soon as they passed the door, his master barred it with a big plank and stacks of hay, completely enclosing the barn. He had no intention of opening it back before the entire nest of geckans was exterminated.

"Hey! Open the door! Open the f*cking door!" The man yelled angrily. "You f*cking bastard! You lied and put us in here to die!"

However, no matter how much he yelled, he knew the door would not open. So he asked his friends. "Gaul! Kali! I know you guys are there! Open the door for me. It is me, Raul. Your friend. Gaul, I took your shift so that you could be with your wife when she was sick. Kali, I saved your boy when that snake was about to bite him. So open the door for me. Please." He begged and begged. But the door did not even shake.

His apathetic master threatened his friend that anyone who open that door will be disowned and branded as a runaway. It meant they will be fired and their families will be kicked out of their houses.

After a while, the man understood that no words would reach their ears so he decided to make his own path. He tried to break the door with his axes. He was so focused on the door that he failed to notice the geckans behind him.

*Click Click Click

He heard the geckans and realised that it was too late for him after the three clicks. Hopelessly, he cursed. "F*ck me." He prepared to go to the next life while he wished he will never be born as a slave again.

However, his wish was not answered as he was saved by Ishàn. Ishàn saw the man was surrounded by the geckans. So, he hopped onto a crate and from there, jumped down on the geckans.

"Spiculum!" Ishàn conjured. Spikes appeared out of his wooden shield and he crushed it down to the geckans. The wooden spikes impaled the geckans' flesh, skewering them to death.

"You..." Ishàn tried to curse but he was out of breath so he could not. "*pant* idiot. Never give your back to a monster." He scolded the man.

But what Ishàn did not notice was that he failed to follow his own lesson while he was too preoccupied with saving the man. He gave his back to a geckan which was still lurking around behind a shadow.

The geckan saw its chance and took it. It came out from the shadow and leapt onto Ishàn.

Before it leapt, Dovos reached Ishàn and hammered down the geckan from behind. It hit the tail and squished the blood and the flesh out of it.

But his attack failed to stop the geckan as it ripped off its tail and left it behind to attack Ishàn. It leapt onto Ishàn who was crouching on the floor and bit off his head from the neck.

It ended the great journey of a kind-hearted warrior who prioritised saving a life than killing a monster.

"Ishàn!!" Dovos cried.

After the fall of Ishàn, Ethan regrouped with Dovos. Ethan told the men to barricade themselves by the door so that they would not be a nuisance while he and Dovos cleared out the nest. They complied with him and barricaded themselves.

With madman Dovos, they took down every geckan brutally as revenge; Ethan for the boy and Dovos for Ishàn.

"Finally!" The rich merchant welcomed them cheerfully as they returned outside. The sun had already set. "You are sure you kill every single one of them, right?" The owner asked.

While Dovos glared at him, Ethan grabbed the employer by the collar. Ethan was itching to punch the bastard because of the boy. Ethan blamed the death of the boy because of the bastard's selfishness and ignorance. He also blamed the Temple for sending the boy back to the abusive master without investigating properly. And he blamed himself for trusting the boy to Temple. Ethan was about to punch but he did not. He released the man and walked away.

He carried the boy's remains outside and buried them properly. "You deserve better, child."

After coming out of the barn alive, Dovos and Ethan nearly punched the merchant but the ones who did punch the merchant were his two servants. They were angry for lying to them and sending them to a death trap. But after the first punch, they were detained by their friends and beaten to a pulp upon their master's order.

They all suffered from the same master yet upon the promise of money, the servants chose to side with their abusive master over their kind.

"I am Dovos from West Hill. Do I have the honour to know your name, you are a crazy warrior who grabs the employer by the collar."

"Name's Ethan from Indran, Sousa. Anyway, what's with this sudden manner? It doesn't sound like you."

Dovos laughed then he offered to go on a journey together. "I am heading to Northedge. Do you want to come along with me?"

"Northedge? Why? There is nothing there but snow and ice."

"No. There are people too. Crazy good people. Like Ishàn. I am returning his belonging to his family in Northedge. Do you want to come along?"

Ethan contemplated for a while. Since he had no other quest, for the time being, he decided to go.

"Let's go to the land of white, Rings. I hope your fur is thick enough for the cold."